VIRTUAL Manchester Livable Cities
Abstract
Conventional definitions of public transport typically focus on mass-transit modes—trains, buses, and trams.. However, for many people with disability, taxis and rideshare also function as essential transport. Unlike fixed-route services, these modes generally require summoning, often via telephone or digital communication, rather than users simply turning up. In addition, many people with disability require continuous, accessible paths of travel to reach pick-up points. However, these paths are frequently disrupted by uneven surfaces, protruding infrastructure, and obstructive shared micro-mobility devices. As such devices are increasingly framed as public transport options, the broader transport ecosystem becomes more complex. Consequently, creating inclusive, accessible public transport involves interrogating multiple, interacting, multi-dimensional sub/systems. Advocacy highlighting accessibility deficiencies often originates from within the disability community, while social impact research consistently emphasises the importance of public transport access for social participation and wellbeing. Although transport research frequently examines the effectiveness of individual modes, relatively little work considers how accessibility barriers accumulating at the interfaces between vehicles, infrastructure, and neighborhood environments are a design problem-space. Drawing on empirical material from doctoral research that trialled the Universal Mobility Index (UMI) Process, this article further examines how actants within urban systems shape accessibility outcomes. As Trial findings highlighted boarding/alighting from vehicles and negotiating pedestrian infrastructure as key pain-points, the article argues that to improve neighborhood-scale accessibility built environment practitioners must engage with users. Ways of enabling direct interaction, between the architecture profession and people with disability in both pedagogical and practice settings, are proposed.
Mary Ann Jackson, with internationally recognised accreditations across Architecture, Planning, and Environment, has experience in research, design, implementation, and assessment. Projects and peer-reveiwed research papers have been recognised locally, nationally and internationally. She has designed and delivered several courses, lectures, seminars and workshops in design, technology, sustainability, and accessibility. Director of Visionary Design Development, her PhD research focused on designing change within complex adaptive systems, to improve neighborhood built environment accessibility